Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav was received with black flags, when he participated in the Maa Pitambara 108 Mahayagya on the banks of the Gomti in Daliganj, to protest against party leader Swami Prasad Maurya's statement on Ramcharitmanas.
On Sunday, Maurya, considered a prominent OBC leader in Uttar Pradesh, had sought a ban on the work composed by the 16th-century poet-saint Tulsidas alleging that Dalits and women have been "insulted" in Ramcharitmanas.
Refusing to apologise for his remarks on Ramacharitmanas, Maurya said that the party is seeking justice for the scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and the backward classes of the country.
Former Uttar Pradesh Minister Sidharth Nath Singh launched a scathing attack on Samajwadi Party (SP) Chief Akhilesh Yadav and challenged him to throw out SP leader Swami Prasad Maurya from the party over his remarks on the scripture Ramcharitmanas.
UP Minister Jaiveer Singh said, "SP people should ask their conscience that the way BJP has honoured Padma Vibhushan, would they have given it to any BJP leader."
Daughter of Samajwadi Party MLC Swami Prasad Maurya and Bharatiya Janata Party MP Sanghamitra Maurya on Thursday reacted to her father's controversial remark on Ramcharitmanas and said that it should be discussed and not objected to.
The Samajwadi Party leader Swami Prasad Maurya on Sunday, sparked a major controversy after he demanded the deletion of "insulting comments and sarcasm" targeted at particular castes and sects in Ramcharitmanas, a poem based on the epic Ramayana.
Ghosh on Saturday alleged that TMC chief Mamata Banerjee batted for a coordination team between Opposition parties and a joint program in other states, however, Congress "did not respond to it" in its attempt to "move alone".
Telangana CM KCR took the first step towards forming a non-Congress opposition front with the first meeting of his party at the national level. The Congress and the TMC were absent.
"Yesterday, BJP accepted that only 400 days are left for them in power now. Those who start counting their days, can't remain in power. Now, only 399 days are remaining," the Samajwadi Party chief said at the rally.